He left behind him a son of the same name, who lost his head for exciting a rebellion in the reign of queen Mary, from whom our poet is commonly distinguished by the appellation of Sir Thomas Wyat the elder.
THE HAND A SYMBOL OF POWER.
In Parkhurst’s Hebrew Lexicon we have the following remarks on the Hand as an emblem of strength and power. “The hand was used by the Jews, as a trophy or monument of victory, and placed on the top of a pillar. Thus Saul, after smiting the Amalekites, in the pride of his heart erected to or for himself (not for Jehovah) a hand, 1 Samuel xv. 12. And David smote Hadadezer, king of Zobah, when he was going to erect his hand or trophy, by the river Euphrates, 2 Sam. viii. 3, and 1 Chronicles, xviii. 3.—And this appears to be the most ancient use of these memorial hands; whence Absalom seems to have taken the hint of erecting one, merely to keep his name in remembrance, 2 Sam. xviii. 18, where it may be observed that this monument is expressly called not only a hand, but a pillar, which shews that the hand was wont to be put on a pillar.
“Neibuhr (Voyage in Arabia, tom. 2. p. 211. French edition) speaking of Ali’s mosque at Mesched Ali, says, that ‘at the top of the dome’ where one generally sees on the Turkish mosques a crescent, or only a pole, there is here a hand stretched out, to represent that of Ali.” And another writer informs us, that at the Alhambra, or red palace of the Moorish kings in Granada, “on the key-stone of the outward arch [of the present principal entrance] is sculptured the figure of an arm, the symbol of strength and dominion.”
“It may not be amiss to observe, that to this day in the East Indies the picture of a hand is the emblem of power or authority. Thus I am assured, says Parkhurst, by a gentleman of undoubted veracity, who resided many years on the coast of Coromandel, that when the Nabob of Arcot, who in his time was governor of five provinces, appeared on public occasions, several small flags, with each a hand painted upon them, and one of a large size with five hands, were solemnly carried before him.”
The hand was used as an ensign of royalty by the kings of France and England. In Sandford’s Genealogical History, there is the following note on the counter-seal of king Edward the third: “In the margin of this counter-seal, near the point of the king’s sword, is represented the hand of justice, being an ensign of royalty peculiar only to the kings of France, for though they in common with other princes carry in their right hand a sceptre of gold, yet in the other they bear the hand of justice, being a short rod, and having on the top of it a left hand, wide open, made of ivory, on account of the elephant being the only quadruped observable for his devotion, love of his governors, and for his equity. The left hand it is said, is preferred to the right for this purpose, because not being employed in working so many wicked actions as the right, it became more proper than the other to represent the symbol of justice. This hand is also placed in the counter-seals of his successors Richard the second, and Henry the fourth; king Henry the fifth omitted it in his seal, and conquering France both placed that crown on the head, and the French sceptre and hand of justice in the hands of his son, king Henry the sixth.”
Queen Elizabeth used the hand as one of her mint marks.
HENRIETTA MARIA,
QUEEN OF CHARLES THE FIRST.
“Our royal martyr,” says Dr. Kennet, “by taking a consort from the Bourbon family, did apparently bring over some evils and mischiefs that disturbed his whole reign. For within less than one year, the French servants of that queen grew so imperious and insolent, that the king was forced to discharge them, and to humble them by a return into their own country.”
“A very sad doom it was certainly to the French,” says L’Estrange in his annals of king Charles, “but as the animadversion was extremely severe, so their offences were in like degree heinous. The bishop of Mende, the queen’s almoner, stood charged for putting intolerable scorn upon, and making religion itself do penance, by enjoining her Majesty, under the notion of penance, to go barefoot, to spin, and to wait upon her family servants at their ordinary repasts, to walk on foot in the mire on a rainy morning, from Somerset House to St. James’s; her confessor, mean while, like Lucifer himself, riding by her in his coach; but, which is worst of all, to make a progress to Tyburn, there to present her devotions for the departed souls of the Papists, who had been executed at that place, on account of the Gunpowder Treason, and other enormous crimes. A most impious piaculary, whereof the king said acutely, that the action can have no greater invective than the relation. The other sex were accused of crimes of another nature, whereof Madam St. George was, as in dignity of office, so in guilt, the principal; culpable she was in many particulars, but her most notorious and unpardonable fault was, her being an accursed instrument of some unkindness between the king and queen. These incendiaries were cashiered, the queen, who formerly shewed so much waspish protervity, soon fell into a mode of loving compliance. But though this renvoy of her Majesty’s servants, imported domestic peace, yet was it attended with an ill aspect from France, though our king, studying to preserve fair correspondence with his brother, sent the Lord Carleton with instructions to represent a true account of the action, with all the motives to it; but his reception was very coarse, being never admitted to audience. Louis despatched Monsieur the Marshal de Bassompierre, as Extraordinary Ambassador to our king, to demand the restitution of the queen’s domesticks: which he at last obtained for most of them.”